Patrick O'Flaherty CM (October 6, 1939 – August 16, 2017) was a

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

writer, historian, and academic. He was born in Long Beach, part of Northern Bay,

Conception Bay Conception Bay (CB) is a bay on the southeast coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The population (in 2011) of people living in municipalities (or unincorporated census subdivisions) located along the coast of Conception Bay was 90,490 making it on ...

. He received a B.A. and M.A. from

Memorial University of Newfoundland Memorial University of Newfoundland, also known as Memorial University or MUN (), is a public university in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, based in St. John's, with satellite campuses in Corner Brook, elsewhere in Newfoundland and ...

, and obtained his Ph.D. from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

in 1963. After teaching at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. He was married to Marjorie Doyle, a writer and broadcaster, and had three sons from a previous marriage. Patrick O'Flaherty was the author of two books of short stories, '' Summer of the Greater Yellowlegs'' (1987) and ''A Small Place in the Sun'' (1989), and two novels, ''Benny's Island'' (1994) and ''Priest of God'' (1989). In 1979 he published ''The Rock Observed'', a survey of writing about Newfoundland and Labrador. His travel guide ''Come Near at your Peril'' (first published 1992), a sardonic but affectionate look at tourism in Newfoundland, is now in its third edition. In collaboration with historian Peter Neary, he wrote ''Part of the Main: An Illustrated History of Newfoundland and Labrador'' (1983) and edited ''By Great Waters'' (1977), an anthology of writing about Newfoundland and Labrador. O'Flaherty later completed three volumes on Newfoundland political history, ''Old Newfoundland: A History to 1843'' (1999), ''Lost Country: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland 1843-1933'' (2005), and ''Leaving the Past Behind: Newfoundland History from 1934'' (2011). In 2007 he became a Member of the Order of Canada. O'Flaherty was notably part of the wide Irish diaspora in Newfoundland, and is recognized as a modern Irish contributor to literature and research. He drowned in a swimming accident in August 2017.

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Appreciation by Rex Murphy
Writers from Newfoundland and Labrador Members of the Order of Canada 1939 births 2017 deaths {{Ireland-writer-stub